Dr. Adam Johns
ENGCMP 0200
Essay #3
Life’s Meaning
Have we as a people lost the meaning of life? Some would say yes we have and others would say we haven’t. It is just all about what the meaning of life means to you. Some have very different opinions on what they want out of life. They might want to enhance it or they just might want to keep it the same. But as author Bill McKibben, of the novel Enough, he gets you to seriously think about this question. He takes you on this journey, about how people are trying to change human life. He explains what we could do to make life better, but at the same time he is asking you if this is really what we want out of life. For me I am all for enhancing life, but genetic engineering is taking it too far.
Genetic engineering what scientists have come up with, so you can plan your future ‘s life out. Instead of your child being born with the genes of you and your partner’s, you can get different types of genes injected into your embryo. They can be born very smart, a good athlete, nice personality, etc. Now I would say that this is taking life way too far. Why would you want to do this to your child? Some would think that this would make life happier but it isn’t. When your child goes out and wins a big track meet, he’s/she’s not going to be thinking “yes I did this all on my own” but “this is what my parents want” (McKibben 53). It’s like you have turned you child into some type of machine, of what you wanted your child to be and that’s not fair. Just like Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says about joy, that with genetic engineering there isn’t any opportunity for joy, and without that we will settle for less such as watching television or drinking (McKibben 54).
If we as a people invite this genetic engineering into our world, then yes, we have lost the meaning of life. Life is not about not about trying to make our children into what we are or what we wanted to be in life. We should be happy with whatever they come out to be and whatever they choose to do with their lives. Yes, when they are young we should teach them about the fundamentals of life, but once they are older we have to let them go and be themselves. That is what this world is all about individualism, everyone as their own person. Having genetic engineering in this world is just going to have everyone the same. People are going to be good at everything, but that is not what life is about we need to have differences in this world.
In conclusion I don’t believe we have lost the meaning of life, but I do believe that if we accept genetic engineering in than we will. We don’t need anything like that. I think we are just fine the way we are. This will just make our world so much more confusing. People are stable with what is going on with our world now. So why should be bring this in? If people would stop thinking of themselves then we wouldn’t even have to think about this problem, and we would be fine. We don’t want to be seen as a world that doesn’t have any meaning for life.
3 comments:
Some quick comments to help you with your revision (take an extra day if you need to - I wasn't able to do this earlier):
1) You may have written this in paragraphs, but you didn't post it with clear paragraphs. You need to check your blog entries and make sure they make sense - it's usually best to put an extra space between paragraphs.
2) You aren't following the prompt. This is ok just as a response to McKibben, but the prompt called for you to discuss the issue using Ware as well.
3) Your argument is reasonably clear - but it's basically just a simplification of some aspects of McKibben. There's nothing wrong with agreeing with an author - but if you agree, you need to find a way of extending (or possibly challenging) some aspect of what they say. You need to do *something* different, something distinctive.
4) Start out with a clear thesis, one which answers the prompt and challenges or extends McKibben. Then move on to providing evidence for that position. Your position only develops implicitly, which is part of the reason your argument ultimately seems vague.
5) Work on your proofreading. For now, making sure that you're using all complete sentences is the most important thing.
Alisha Nesbitt
Dr. Adam Johns
ENGCMP 0200
Essay #3
Life’s Meaning
Have we as a people lost the meaning of life? Some would say yes we have and others would say we haven’t. It is just all about what the meaning of life means to you. Some have very different opinions on what they want out of life. They might want to enhance it or they just might want to keep it the same. But as author Bill McKibben, of the novel Enough, he gets you to seriously think about this question. He explains what we could do to make life better, but at the same time he is asking if this is really what we want out of life. Enhancing life can be a good thing for this world (as we have all ready seen happen), but after going a certain extent, technology and science will destroy human life forever by take away the element of chance, which I believe is the key to life.
Genetic engineering is what scientists have come up with, so you can plan your future child’s life out. Instead of your child being born with the genes of you and your partner’s, you can get different types of genes injected into your embryo. They can be born very smart, a good athlete, nice personality, etc. Why would you want to do this to your child? When your child goes out and wins a big track meet, he’s/she’s not going to be thinking “yes I did this all on my own” but “this is what my parents created me into” (McKibben 53). It’s like you have turned you child into some type of machine, of what you wanted your child to be and that’s not fair. This technological change is not worth our time or our energy. Just like Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi says about joy, with genetic engineering there isn’t any opportunity for joy, and without that we will settle for less in life (McKibben 54). This also takes way from the chance you could have a child with he’s/her own opinions about life.
This world is already very competitive in everything, and bring this in will make things worse. Many children out there already feel bad about themselves due to the fact that they don’t live up to the standards’ of others. Just like the main character, Jimmy Corrigan, from the comic book, by Chris Ware. Jimmy is one of those children who don’t live up to the aspects of the world once he gets older. How do you think he would feel if genetic engineering came along and he couldn’t afford it just like most people in this world? This world would go crazy, because everything would be so unfair.
If we as a people invite this
genetic engineering into our world, then yes, we have lost the meaning of life and the chance at what is going to happen next. Life is not about not about trying to make our children into what we are or what we wanted to be in life. We should be happy with whatever they come out to be and whatever they choose to do with their lives. Yes, when they are young we should teach them about the fundamentals of life, but once they are older we have to let them go and be themselves. That is what this world is all about individualism, everyone as their own person. Having genetic engineering in this world is just going to have everyone the same. People are going to be good at everything, but that is not what life is about we need to have differences in this world.
I don’t believe we have lost the meaning of life, but I do believe that if we accept genetic engineering in than we will. We don’t need anything like that. I think we are just fine the way we are. This will just make our world so much more confusing. People are stable with what is going on with our world now. So why should be bring this in? Why would someone want to know what is going to happen to them every day of their lives? Chance is what people live for, if not they would have boring lives, and who would want that. If people would stop thinking of themselves then we wouldn’t even have to think about this problem, and we would be fine. We don’t want to be seen as a world that doesn’t have any meaning for life.
Alisha Nesbitt
Prof. Adam Johns
ENGCMP 0200
Option #3
Is He Evil?
Evil is the state of being devoid of compassion and feelings, and not having any care in the world for oneself or anyone else, also its having the void of hope and change. Being evil is not the same as being a lost soul and not knowing real happiness. In the novel, Frankenstein, by Mary Shelley, most people would call the main character Victor Frankenstein evil, because of the horrible things that have gone on in his life. But for me, he’s not; he’s just a lost person in this world.
Victor Frankenstein is not an evil person; I believe that he is just mixed up with life. And I believe that it all started when he was a child. In the novel, he states himself that, his mother saw him as her plaything and his father saw him as his idol, he was in an awe with Victor (Shelley 35). His mother gave him affection but like a doll she would have as a child, and his father didn’t show him any affection other than smile at him. When having a child, he/she should not be seen as your plaything; they should be your pride and joy. As a child, Victor could have been confused by his parents actions to him; rather, his parents should have treated and saw him as a person. Also, as Victor was growing up, his mother adopted a young girl named Elizabeth. The day his mother brought her home, she presented Elizabeth to Victor like she was a present, by telling him that Elizabeth was his (Shelley 37). All of these things just prove to me that Victor is confused on life. His parents taught him that children were playthings, and when he got older, they show him by giving Elizabeth to him like she was a toy.
Following this further, in the novel Victor’s monster kills a lot of people, and though most would say that Victor let it happen and didn’t care. But what I see from it is that the monster was Victor’s child, but he doesn’t know how to take care of it. If, as a child, Victor was raised better he would have never walked away from the monster because it came out ugly (Shelley 58). You can see as the novel goes on Victor feels guilty about every person that the monster killed, but he doesn’t know how to tell anyone about it. For example, after the monster kills Elizabeth, Victor takes a stand and tried to tell everyone what happened. No one would believe him so he took matters in his own hands and destroys the monster. Victor was not an evil person who is lost and doesn’t know how to handle his emotions. As time goes on he starts to realize the bad things that are going on in his life and wants to stop them from happening.
In conclusion, I believe that Victor Frankenstein is not an evil person. In the beginning he was lost and didn’t know what to do with his self, and then in the end he found his self. Yes, he let lots of bad things happen that he could have stopped but he didn’t know how. But that doesn’t mean that he was an evil person. He did feel guilty about what happened. I wouldn’t just announce that he was evil because that is what you read, but you have to look at all of the evidence first and then decided
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